businessman, lumber company executive; born in Watertown in 1853 to Welsh immigrant parents, he was orphaned as a child, grew up on a farm near Fox Lake, and attended Ripon College from 1869 to 1872. From 1876 to 1888 he worked in the grain business at Manitowoc and Clintonville, where he started The Bank of Clintonville in 1884. In 1892, following a trip to the Pacific Northwest, he organized the G. W. Jones Lumber Co. which specialized in hardwoods, as opposed to the many Wisconsin lumber companies that harvested the Wisconsin pineries. He moved to Appleton in 1898 and over the next three decades expanded the company, which ultimately operated hardwood sawmills in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Jones was also a trustee of Lawrence College 1898-1934, serving as its vice-president for 26 years, and was active in Appleton civic and philanthropic organizations.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the George W. Jones Autobiography for details.

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[Source: Commemorative biographical record of the upper Wisconsin counties of Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, Vilas, Langlade and Shawano... (Chicago: J. H. Beers&Co., 1895); Cintonville Tribune, July 26, 1935]